The Experiment
by Paulimapi
Summary: Every time James asks Lily out she says the same thing,"No!", but what's going to happen the day he gets tired of asking? L
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_  
_"Tomorrow, I'll finally be able to get up at the time I want to without you nagging me because we are late for some test!" exclaimed Alice as she went to sit down on the nearest couch of the common room and pointed at one of her friends.

"You say it as if I never let you sleep, Alice!" replied Lily, frowning.

"You have to admit that during the tests period you limit our hours of sleep, Lily" commented the third girl of the group, who went to sit at the sofa in front of the fireplace.

"Great. My friends think I'm an army officer..." said Lily as she sat brusquely beside her friend on the sofa. "I only do it for your own good, so you'll get good marks."

"Oh, come on, Lily! You know both Grace and I love you and care about you! But believe me, there are other ways to show it, it's not necessary for you to wake us up at 6:00 AM for a last check-up" , assured Alice getting up from the couch and sitting with her friends on the sofa.

"This doesn't happen very often, but I for once agree with Alice", affirmed Grace in a surprised voice. "Promise us that for the NEWTS you'll let us go at our own pace."

Lily looked at both of her friends raising an eyebrow, asking herself if she really was_ that _demanding with them. Alice was at one side, looking at her expectantly, and to the other side was Grace, trying in vain to tie back her dark curls into a ponytail and not really paying attention at what she would or would not say. After thinking about it for a few moments, she resigned. After all, she still had two years to make them change their studying 'pace'.

**oOo**

Half an hour later, the three friends were still at the same spot, talking and commenting about their tests. And they would have carried on if it weren't for the voice that interrupted them just when Alice was asking what they were doing on the next Hogsmade visit.

"Evan already has plans," assured them the voice of recently deep voice of the messy, dark haired boy who had just entered the common room with two of his friends.

Lily took a deep breath before standing up and turning around to face him.

"What makes you think I already have something to do on Saturday, Potter?" she asked coldly.

"Well, that you are going with me, of course",he answered, giving a hint of that particular grin of his that melted away half of the girls at Hogwarts and that to Lily Evans was just another feature of his arrogance.

The whole room went silent. Her friends had already turned around and were looking at the scene rather entertained, very sure of the answer Lily was going to give. The rest of the students there, though, were all speechless from the surprise. Lily Evans never waited more than a second to reply to James Potter every time he asked her out.

"This doesn't smell too good" whispered one of his friends to the boy next to were both observing the situation from far behind, leaning against the wall that divided the girls' stairway to the dormitories from the boys'.

"Evans is about to give in, Remus" ,replied Sirius whispering, "James has succeeded".

But Remus had been right in his intuition and Sirius realized it when he saw Lily taking out her wand of her robes.

"I told you I'd rather go out with the giant squid than with you!" she yelled, rage flashing through her eyes. "And I've also told you that I wouldn't go out with you even if you were the last person in the planet! Don't you listen to me when I speak?" she asked, raising her voice even more, which made most of the people there dissapear through the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Of course I listen to you. But you don't have to take everything literally, you need to know how to read between the lines," he replied calmy and with the same grin.

Lily grabbed her wand tightly, ready to curse him, but lucky for James, her friends were faster and Grace managed to take away her wand and drag her to the dormitory before her friend did something she would regret later. Alice turned back to the sofa to pick up her friends' satchels.

"You should change your attitude if you really want to date her" she told James with a shred of diversion when she walked past him.

He didn't say anything, he just kept staring at the stairway through which Lily had just dissapeared.

"Good night, Sirius" said Alice sweetly when she faced him. His only response was pulling a face that she couldn't see, since she never stayed to wait for an answer.

"May I know why you never answer her?" asked Remus him as they sat at the sofa with James.

"Because she thinks she's so funny and bugs me. As if anyone could like her..." replied Sirius with a groan.

"_I_ like her" answered the chestnut haired friend, frowning a bit.

"Yeah, but you are a weird case, Remus, you should be looked into...You even get along with _Evans_..."


	2. Chapter 2

** CHAPTER 2**

_  
__Two years later..._

A small crowd was thronging at the bulletin board of the Gryffindor common room to see what the Head Girl Lily Evans had posted in it. At the other side of the room, two girls were laughing openly at the situation: Lily couldn't go through with all that racket of people.

"That's the best you can do, just watch how your friend tries to go through all that people in vain", grumbled Lily with sarcasm, when she finally reached them. "The best."

"You are being over dramatic again..." sighed Alice from her sit. "When you matured, why didn't you also get rid of that dramatic tendency?" she asked with fake innocence and a hint of a mocking smile on her face.

"Well, that's one of the downsides of being Head Girl, isn't it?" said Grace, who had gotten up and was trying to fix Lily's hair a bit. After going through that racket, the ponytail Lily had that morning was destroyed.

"What are you guys doing on Saturday?" asked Lily, ignoring her friend's commentary.

"I told Frank I'd go with him to Hogsmade" answered Alice absent-mindlessly.

"That leaves only the two of us going alone, then, right?" Grace asked Lily.

"Yes, but...I was thinking, that maybe that guy with chestnut hair and hazel eyes, who you supposedly don't like, had invited you to go with him?" replied Lily, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

Grace glared at her. "He hasn't invited me, and if he did, I'd have to tell him no because I don't like him. I- don't- like- him," she said with hostility, and looking at both of her friends, who seemed to find something funny in the conversation.

"Maybe they won't invite you this time, Grace, but I don't think Lily will escape 'Mr. Look at me, I'm the best Potter", as she noticed how he was walking towards the table they were sitting at.

This time it was Lily and Grace who were laughing as Lily shot them a glare before she stood up to run away from there.

"Hey, Evans! I was looking at the Hogsmade poster and I was wondering if--"

"No, Potter!" she cut him off before he could finish. "I'm off to the library", she told her friends before disappearing from the common room.

"But...we are done with our homework already!" exclaimed Alice.

"It's probably her new tactic to get rid of him", said Grace calmly as she stood up to follow her friend and pretended that the guy with the confused face in front of him didn't exist.

The girls were heading towards the portrait when they bumped into Sirius and Remus. Grace greeted them both but Alice only greeted the latter, ignoring Sirius', "Hello".

"Why does she act like I don't exist? Alice has seen me, so it's not like I'm invisible or something.." Sirius stared at the girls until they were out of the common room, with a puzzled face. Some moment at the past year, every time he talked to Alice all he received was silence.

"I hate people not answering when I talk to them".

"Just say you hate that _she_ doesn't answer you" clarified Remus. "Lily said no again, didn't she, James?" he asked his other friend who had sat down and was doing some homework.

"She didn't even let me ask her this time. She saw me, said "No, Potter!", and ran away to the library", replied James looking up from his parchment. "What's up with _him_?" he asked then, pointing at Sirius.

"Alice has ignored him again."

"What did I ever do to her?" asked Sirius quietly, more to himself than to his friends.

"Before last year, _you_ were the one who ignored her all the time", James reminded him.

"But I don't do it anymore!" said Sirius.

"Well, now you know how she felt", finished Remus, patting his back.

**oOo  
**

According to Alice, one of the best privileges of being Head Girl was the bedroom they gave you. A bedroom big enough to have two or three more beds, with a huge window that had a view to the lake, and its own bathroom. The bathtub was probably not as magnificent as the one at the prefect's bathroom, but at least she didn't have to share it. And of course, being one of the best friends of the Head Girl gave carte blanche to enjoy all those privileges. And they could talk about everything they wanted to without worrying about people overhearing.

"The weird thing is, that he hasn't asked her in four weeks" said Grace, who was laying down on a couch close to the bed. "Maybe he is finally growing up..."

"For Merlin's sake, it's James Potter we are talking about!" exclaimed Lily from the bed. "He'll never grow up, he's just like Black."

"Point for Lily," said Alice, who was sitting at the windowsill, a bit to the right of Grace.

"Let's leave Black's talk for later, because we need to talk about that too, Alice. Like I said before at the library," carried on Grace, ignoring Alice's grunt when she heard Sirius' name. "I think it wouldn't be a bad idea to give Potter a chance."

"Grace, don't even think--"

"He is Head Boy, you are Head Girl, and you are going to have to talk a lot this year whether you like it or not..." Grace went on, "And honestly, with all the Potter talk I'm beginning to think that maybe deep down you--"

"Don't say it!" protested the red-head, suddenly sitting up, "It's the most stupid thing in the world, what you were about to say, so forget it," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Fine, whatever you say, but you can't deny that the boy has changed a lot since last year, and for good."

"I agree with that," said Alice."He may be immature and arrogant, but he has gotten even hotter this year. He is still not as hot as---What, is there something on my face? Why are you both looking at me like that? she asked, when she saw the weirded out faces her friends had.

"I meant he doesn't clown around as much, pays more attention at class, and doesn't commit as much atrocities as before. Maybe one or two pranks at the Slytherins, but not if they didn't prank them before," explained Grace." Maybe it's time to see if he has matured at the sentimental area too and maybe you are not just some whim caused by hormones, Lily."

"And how does _she _know what pranks do or do not James and his friends play?" Lily asked Alice, who was staring at Grace very interested.

"I have no idea...but I like the idea of giving him a chance..." answered Alice, then gave a little jump and walked over to sit beside Grace. "It would be like some sort of...experiment" she told Grace, acting all excited as if Lily wasn't there.

"Stop planning stuff in which _I_ will be at stake," said Lily, standing up.

"Yeah, I think we can call it an experiment", agreed Grace with a mischivious grin on her face.  
"What will James Potter do when Lily Evans finally accepts."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It was dinner time and all the students were at the Great Hall. A lot of them had just gotten back from Hogsmade and they were all talking excitedly. Lily Evans' day didn't go too well.

Even though she had tried to forget about the chat of a few days ago, her friends had talked about it every moment of the day, trying to convince her of what a good idea 'the experiment' was. If they were walking through a hallway to go to Ancient Runes, and bumped into James Potter, Alice or Grace said the word 'experiment', so she would remember. No matter what they were doing, they always mentioned it. On Friday it didn't even matter that they didn't see James, seeing Sirius, Remus or Peter caused the same effect: Lily froze, began acting all defensive and got in a bad mood. Grace and Lily were convinced that their friend would end up giving up and doing it. _That_, or she would just stop talking to them.

Nevertheless, and even though they tried, it wasn't their fault that Hogsmade was so small that they bumped into The Marauders through the whole day. When they left a shop, outside would be James and his friends. When they went to the Three Broomsticks, the boys were there. Lily refused to enter Honeydukes, she just knew that they would be there. She even began to think that maybe James was following her like he did when they were in fourth year. But Grace reminded her that it had been three years already since then, and that now it was just a coincidence.

"Coincidence?" repeated the red head while they had lunch at the Three Broomsticks. "And how come we haven't seen Alice if this town is _so_ small?"

Grace's theory had a whole there, but they both knew Alice wouldn't be walking around town with Frank on their first date.

When they got to the Gryffindor tower, they barely had time to drop off their things before going down to dinner, and when they were walking towards the Great Hall they bumped into a grinning Alice who didn't wait to tell them how good her day had been.

And if Lily's day had been bad, the worst was yet to come.

"And we have agreed to meet tomorrow after lunch," Alice finished telling them her "short" version of her day.

"Hello girls", said a tall, chestnut haired, smiling guy who had just sat down in front of them at one of the last empty spots at the Gryffindor table.

"Hey, Remus," they said back.

"..and company," added Grace when she saw how James and Sirius sat down beside their friend.

Lily focused on her plate and didn't talk to anyone. Alice greeted James calmly. And then continued talking to Grace as if Sirius was not there.

"… Frank wanted to go to Three Broomsticks but when we arrived all the tables were taken…"

"Frank? Are you talking about Frank Longbottom?" asked Sirius raising an eyebrow.

But Alice pretended he didn't say anything.

"I didn't see you guys all day, where were you?" she asked Lily and Grace.

"_We_ did see them. Quite a bit..." Sirius said in a new attempt to catch the attention of the girl.

- Who I _did_ see was that prefect from Ravenclaw… - Casey carried on. Grace, Remus and James smiled seeing the face Sirius had, a mixture between confusion and annoyance. "Mandy Perks. She told me that if I saw you to remember you that she wants to talk, James".

Lily raised her head abruptly, and Alice smiled to her insides.

"Perks?" asked James, a little taken aback." I don't remember her telling me that..."

"So fast you forget about your conquers?" asked Lily scathingly.

James was surprised to hear the question from her, he wasn't expecting it. She never talked to him unless it was strictly necessary. And this was not the case. But he kept his eyes on her, trying to explain in silence everything she wouldn't let him say. The others remained silent, staring at Lily.

"I don't _have_ a conquer," was all James answered, his eyes still fixed on her.

It was her who couldn't stand looking into his eyes anymore.

"My appetite is gone," she murmured as she stood up to leave the Great Hall.

James went back to his plate, a bit confused with what had just happened, and Remus looked at Grace with a question clear on his eyes. The girl made a hand gesture and shook her head, letting him know the matter wasn't important. Only Sirius seemed to have thought it wasn't normal and he had to comment about it.

"You are in, Prongs" he said with a smirk.

"You know? I think there's something weird happening at this castle, besides the ghosts and stuff. Because always, at the most inopportune moment, I hear this far away voice who only talks nonsense", said Alice with a disgusted face, "it's incredibly annoying."

And without another word, she grabbed a small plate of jelly and left.

"Would somebody tell me what did I do to her?" asked Sirius, clearly annoyed.

"Ignore her for the last six years," informed Grace. "You will reap the harvest that you sow, so stop complaining once and for all, Black."

**oOo**

The following week was quite weird for everyone. Lily set purpose to forget about everything, the whole thing. And what would be a better way to do it than avoiding everyone? She got up really early, had breakfast alone at Hogwarts' kitchen and didn't see her friends until they had classes. At lunch time she always shirked again to the kitchen and then back to classes. When they were finished she went to the library, and even though Alice and Grace tried to strike up a conversation, Madam Prince would barely let them. She even went to sleep early to avoid talking to them. Because every time that Potter's name showed up in their conversation, Lily locked herself inside her mind.

Obviously, the sudden change in Lily made Grace and Alice uncomfortable, but they were sure it was a reason that showed that something to do with James Potter was haunting Lily and she didn't want to tell them. Or maybe, not even herself knew what was happening.

On the other side there was James. He couldn't deny that Lily's attitude at that dinner had caught him off guard. Really off guard. She had never addressed him directly if she could help it, and if she did, she used an annoyed tone of voice.

It had taken a while for James to realize that he _really _liked Lily. At first it was Lily Evans, the unattainable whim of an arrogant teenager. And when that teenager matured and left all those things behind, he realized that she was still there, that she hadn't gone away with the rest of his childhood. That had happened at some moment of the previous year, at the same time he stopped following her around to ask her out. He changed his tactic. Because for James she had become something he just needed. And now she had started being not _so _unattainable.

He spent the whole week observing her, noticing how she avoided her friends, how she didn't eat with them and how she wasted (according to him) the whole afternoon at the library. That change of behavior from her part did nothing but cherish his hopes, and feel that the day in which she would finally say 'yes' was closer.

On Thursday, Grace couldn't handle it anymore and planned something more drastic. Since Lily spent every afternoon at the library, studying too much time in advance, Grace got inside without Lily noticing and went to talk to Madame Pince. She told her that Lily was hiding cookies in her bag and ate them while nobody was looking. The librarian thanked her and Grace went outside to wait.

Ten seconds later, Lily was already outside with her bag over her head. Before she could even react, Grace took Lily's wand from out of her robes, shot her a spell to make her mute and Alice took her by the arm.

"And now, without making a big deal out of it, we are going to head to your room" she told Lily as she and Grace took her to the Gryffindor tower.

They had to wait for an hour before Lily finally started talking properly with them, with no excuses or eternal silences.

"It's annoying that you won't leave the Potter talk! Potter this, Potter that, I can't stand it!" she said.

"Yeah, well I admit we've been quite annoying, but you can't deny that your attitude--" started Alice, beside her.

"What attitude?" asked Lily, frowning. "I've always treated James the same way, I don't know what its different now..."

"First of all. Now you are calling him James? Don't interrupt, " said Grace, when Lily opened her mouth, probably to protest. "Second: You are contradicting yourself. You assure that you are treating him the same as always, then, what's with the question you asked him about his conquers the other day at dinner, seeing you have _never _talked to him other than the necessary. And why are Alice and me supposed to pay for your anger or your bad day? You've been avoiding us for almost a week, you don't eat with us, you run away from the common room if we start talking to you. And well, if poor Remus comes and sits with us, you run away too. You are being quite rude to people who don't deserve it, don't you think?".

"I...don't...know. I don't know anything!" confessed Lily, switching her face from anger to confusion."I don't know why I asked him that. I don't know why it makes me nervous to bump into him at the hallway, I don't know..."

Grace got up from the couch and sat next to her, placing a hand over her shoulder and said, "This is going to have to make us do another experiment."

The red head stared at her hesitantly. If she was going to tell her to ask James out she was going to have wait forever. She then looked at Alice, who shrugged and smiled sweetly.

"Hypothesis of expermient number two: Has Lily Evans crossed over the wall from hatred to love?" she said.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"_You _should tell him, it was you who he sent it to, not me. "

It had been a few days since Lily confessed she didn't know exactly what was happening with James, and since then, avoiding him was her biggest worry. That's why she was asking Alice a great favor. Dumbledore had approached her at breakfast to let her know that he was calling a meeting with the Heads that afternoon. He headmaster asked her nicely if she would please let James Potter know that he'd be expecting them after classes. Obviously, she couldn't say no since the headmaster knew she was going to see James at some hour of the day and she could let him know. But then she would have to talk to him and that's not what she wanted to do at the moment.

"Please, Alice" begged Lily. "You have classes with them after lunch, I'd have to go look for him and then be late for my own class.

"But we had classes with them this morning, Charms and Transfiguration" replied Alice. "Why didn't you tell him then? You are the Head Girl, not me."

"Grace," said Lily, looking at her other friend so she would help her convince Alice.

"Oh no, don't even start with me. We had the same class this morning and I told you then you should have told him" replied Grace calmly.

"Okay, great," groaned Lily, standing up. "Now I'll have to go look for him at the kitchen, because since they are _soo_ special, they can't eat here with everyone else. I'll be late for Runes and Gryffindor will lose 10 points, and then _I_ will be blamed when we don't win the House Cup this year."

"Oh, alright, alright, I'll let Potter know" Alice said, rolling her eyes. "Anything so I won't have to hear all your drama later."

"Thank you!!" yelled Lily, hugging her friend.

"Yes, yes, but let me finish my dessert or I won't tell him anything" threatened the girl, making Lily jump aside at once, and sitting back next to Grace with a huge smile on her face.

"But it would have been easier to convince me by telling me that now you blush every time you talk to him", said Alice, giving her pie one last bite and standing up.

Lily shot her a deathly look and stood up too, so she could remind Alice something.

"At the end of lessons at Dumbledore's office. He already knows the password."

Alice said goodbye to her friends and headed off to the castle's grounds. Her next class was Care of Magical Creatures. When she got to the place were the class was given, she only saw some Ravenclaw classmates, so she went to sit with them. Not long after, James, Sirius and Peter arrived too, who sat down real far away from her. When she saw them arrive, she knew that she could either tell them now, or at the end of the class, but she thought the sooner the better, so she stood up, excused herself from the people she was talking to, and walked over to Potter and his friends.

"Potter", she called him, once she was behind them.

The boy immediately turned around, and so did Sirius, who was beside him.

"Hey, Alice, how are you?" asked Sirius, smiling, but she as always, ignored him.

"Did you want something?" asked James nicely. After all, he got along fine with Alice. Lily was the problem.

"Professor Dumbledore wants to see the Heads at his office at the end of lessons, today," informed Alice without paying attention to the hand gestures Sirius was making to get her attention. "Lily has asked me to tell you."

"Thanks..." said James, discussing with himself if he should ask her or not...Finally, his curiosity won. "How come she didn't tell me herself? We always do it that way."

"_You big mouth" _, Alice told herself. She grinned trying to hide the desire to punch herself and shrugged, then turned around and went back to where she had come from.

"That girl is weird, I'm telling you," said Sirius, as he saw Alice sit with the Ravenclaws.

"You are the weird one, Padfoot" said James, without hiding his mocking tone. "She came to talk to _me, _and you just made a fool out of yourself trying to catch her attention."

"I _never_ make a fool out of myself" hissed Sirius, crossing his arms over his chest, yet still staring at the same spot.

"Fine. When I get a pensive and you can see yourself as I see you when she's with us, then we'll talk," concluded James quietly since the teacher had just arrived.

**oOo**

Up, at one of the towers of the castle, the seventh year students were having their Runes class. Lily, Grace and Remus were the only ones who had gotten a mark high enough at their OWLS to carry on with that subject, that's why they always sat together since the previous year. Because in contrast to the other classes, this room had three seats per table, not like the Potions class at the dungeons, or the Transfigurations one, which only had two. Lily had always sat in the center because Grace didn't like that sit, but this time it was the red head who went to sit at the very end of the table, right next to the window. Grace told her quietly to switch places, but her friend seemed very interested in what she was looking at through the window. So Grace didn't have any other option than to sit at the center, beside Remus.

"Grace, would you help me with the essay we have to hand in tomorrow in Arithmacy?" he asked her quietly, as the teacher placed all her things on the desk. "There are some things I don't really get."

"Sure," she whispered, "I'll help you this afternoon, Lily has a meeting with Dumbledore."

"Thank you," he answered softly, smiling at her.

Grace spent the rest of the lesson really nervous and avoiding by all means to look at the guy beside her.

Lily, on the contrary, felt relieved when she saw Alice approach James at the beginning of the lesson. She was going to have to reward her friend for the favor.

The problem was, she couldn't avoid James that afternoon.

Three hours later all the students finished their lessons and most of them went to their common rooms or to the library. Lily said goodbye to Grace and Remus when she left the classroom, and walked over to Dumbledore's office.

She was so absorbed thinking how she would treat James, that she didn't even notice when he started to walk beside her. She wanted to open her mouth and at least say 'hi'. But when she realized how he was walking quietly and without looking at her, as if he was walking alone, made her think about it better. It was surprising, because since she had memory, every time she met James, he had talked to her. It was her who always answered him rudely or didn't even bother to reply back.

The way to Dumbledore's office wasn't long, but Lily had a chance to peek at the boy several times. He was carrying his bag on his shoulder and his hands in his pockets, walking to her pace but acting as if no one else was there. When they reached the gargoyle, he said the password and climbed up the stairs without waiting for her. Lily panicked.

Half an hour later the Gryffindors walked out of the office, the headmaster with them.

"And in a few months you will have the academic guidance talk again", he was saying calmly. "Then it will be the fifth years' turn."

"Of course, sir," answered Lily, absent mindlessly, who wanted to reach the common room as fast as possible so she could talk to her friends.

"I'll see you both at dinner", said the headmaster.

They parted then. Lily and James to the common room and Dumbledore back to his office. James looked at Lily to see if she had anything else to add, but she just kept walking over to the Fat Lady's portrait without saying a word. It had been several days since he last saw her, only during the classes they shared. At first he thought she might be avoiding him, but then he thought better of it and realized she wasn't like that. But still, it had been about seven days since she last talked to him, it had never been that long, even if it was only to insult him or tell him off. Something must be up.

But James had gotten tired of waiting and had gotten to the conclusion that if after all this years trying she hadn't accepted to give him one chance, maybe it was because she would always be impossible. A goal in which he had wasted a lot of time trying to achieve. Maybe giving up was the best.

When he entered the common room he saw Sirius and Remus sitting near the fireplace. They were playing a game of chess which Remus would probably end up winning.

"How was it with Dumbledore?" asked Remus, looking up from the chessboard

"Alright. The same chores as always" replied James, sitting down next to Sirius. "What are those parchments?" he asked, noticing all the books and parchments on Remus' lap.

"Oh, nothing, Grace has been helping me with some Arithmacy things" answered the boy as he played a move. "But she just left to the dormitories as soon as she saw Lily walk in. Did something happen?"

"Nothing".

"You sure?" insisted Remus. "Lily had a sour look on her face.

"Evans always has the same face," said Sirius giving up on the game. Remus would always win.

"I'm sure," said James. "Absolutely nothing, I think she's beginning to do the same thing as Alice."

"Alice, what does she do?" asked Sirius, rather interested.

"She ignores you and now Evans does the same thing with me", answered James, sitting back on the couch and rolling his eyes.

**oOo**

"Well, I think it's perfectly clear," said Alice. She was sitting with Lily and Grace at the red head's room, talking about the experiment.

"I didn't think we were going to learn the results so fast, honestly," said Anne, "are you sure of what you are saying, Lily?"

"Isn't it obvious already?" asked Lily, hiding behind her hands.

"Actually, Grace, Lily is right. We just have to put all the pieces off the puzzle together and see how they fit," added Alice, "or have you _ever _seen Lily with that face because James has talked to her in the past seven years?"

Grace didn't need to answer. It was pretty obvious indeed.

One hour before the three of them had been at the common room, finishing off their homework. After a while, Remus joined them because he needed Grace to help him with one last problem of Arithmacy. Up until then, everything had gone perfectly, it wasn't the first time that the boy did homework with them. But when James showed up and went to sit beside his friend, things got worse.

Grace and Alice couldn't pay attention to what they were doing because they were more focused on Lily, that had ended up sitting beside James. Neither him nor Remus noticed that Lily stopped writing her Potions essay when he sat down. Grace tried to catch her friend's attention so she would start writing again before the boys realized, but the only thing she got was that James looked over at Lily's parchment.

"You are missing the part where we have to grind the mandrake's roots before adding them to the cauldron," he indicated her, peeking at her parchment from over her shoulder.

Lily blushed instantly but James didn't notice since he went back to his book. But Alice and Grace did notice their friend's reaction, who couldn't even articulate and say 'thank you'. And before Remus could ask her what was wrong, since Lily was one of the best in potions and wouldn't forget something as basic, Alice got up and made an excuse to get her friend out of there.

And now they had been at the bedroom for an hour, not really knowing how to face the news: experiment number two had given a result of : "hopelessly in love".

And it wasn't only Lily's behavior that made them know, but she had confessed too.

"In love with Potter. And I realize it just when he doesn't even pay attention to me anymore. Great timing!" Lily was saying yet again. "What am I going to do now? It's impossible to avoid him for the seven months we still have left at Hogwarts."

"Grace can help you out with that..." said Alice, "after all she has been hiding for more than a year that she loves--"

"I don't like him!" protested Grace.

"Come on, why keep denying it!? We are your friends, aren't we?" Alice insisted.

"It's just as stupid as if I said that you like Black!" replied Grace, starting to get angry.

"Now _that _is crazy" Lily added, relieved that they had changed the subject.

"Though of course, you have never been mean to him, actually you guys are friends..." continued Alice as if the last two comments hadn't been said, "but Lily, she has gone overboard hating James and that's not good..."

"Thanks for reminding me, I had forgotten all about that..." said Lily, annoyed.

"Look at it from other way, you won't lose anything for trying," advised Grace.

"Well then, why don't you follow your own advise? I'll never ask James out, are you insane?!" said Lily, astonished.

"Coward," murmured Grace, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well what about you?" replied Alice getting up from the bed. "You two should try and fix your love life. Me, meanwhile, am going to get some use in mine and go look for Frank", she said before leaving the room.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

A week later, the girls' excitement about it all had faded a bit. Lily and Grace opted by not mentioning it and Alice followed the idea. If her friends were happy that way she wouldn't discuss it, even if she didn't agree.

"Pass me the potions book, Lily", said Grace while the three friends were making homework at the common room.

"Well, I'm leaving now, I told Frank I'd meet him", announced Alice, stretching her arms.

"It's getting serious with Longbottom, isn't it?" asked Remus who was sitting nearby alone, since James and Sirius were at the Quidditch field.

"I'm not really head over heels for him, but I like him", answered the girl, shrugging.

"Evans, we have to go meet the headmaster." James had just entered the common room, still wearing his quidditch uniform.

Lily picked up her things quietly before standing up to follow the boy. Grace stared at her until she they left, right behind Alice who was just leaving too.

"What's wrong with Lily?" asked Remus, a few minutes later.

"With Lily? Nothing, what would be?" answered Grace, starting to write on her parchment again.

"I've noticed it for a few weeks now" he insisted, making Grace meet his eyes. "But I think it got worse since that day at dinner. I haven't seen her talk to James since then and she doesn't talk to other people much either. You know what's up, I'm sure of it, you girls tell each other everything."

"You are imagining things, really" said Grace.

"I see. So if nothing is wrong with her she won't be interested in knowing why James has stopped asking her out and following her around," he said, raising an eyebrow.

Grace narrowed her eyes at him.

"Spit it out and I'll tell you" she finally said.

"I asked first", replied Remus, smiling.

The girl decided to give up and tell him.

Meanwhile, outside the common room Alice was greeting Frank, just outside the portrait. And as soon as James and Lily disappeared through the hallway, Sirius walked in. Alice didn't realize, so she just grabbed Frank's hand to go for a stroll with him when Sirius interrupted them.

"What are you doing?!" yelled Sirius when he saw that the Ravenclaw was the standing beside the entrance of the common room. "He can't be here!".

"He is not inside the tower, and I don't see a sign ,anyway!"the girl answered him for the first time in a year. "So get out of here and stop pestering, Black!"

At this point Alice had let go of Frank's hand and had her wand out, as did Sirius. Frank, maybe to avoid the consequences or maybe because he didn't have the bravery of a Gryffindor, ran away without saying goodbye. Alice didn't even notice, she was focused in a discussion that was getting louder and louder.

"You are an idiot! You _still_ haven't realized!" she yelled at Sirius.

But Sirius instead of yelling back at her, just kept silent, a smirk creeping up on his face.

"See? Hopeless idiot," said Alice, noticing how he kept silent.

"And you _do_ realize you are talking to me again?" asked Sirius, in his normal tone of voice. "I'm not invisible, after all."

"Of course you are not invisible!" yelled Alice, realizing how all the year's effort had suddenly failed. "But it was nice to believe so, one moron less in the world."

"_You_ are the moron," muttered Sirius, his smirk disappearing.

"Asshole!"

"Bitch!"

They stared at each other, fulmination on their eyes, and then turned around and walked away from each other. She forgot about Frank, and he forgot about how tired he was from the Quidditch.

**oOo**

One hour later, Remus and Grace were still sitting at the same spot, the parchments and books completely forgotten. They were talking about their friends, how James had given up on Lily, and how hard it was for Lily to realize she didn't hate him after all, quite the contrary actually. The problem was, Remus was sure that James wouldn't ask Lily out again and Grace was that Lily wouldn't confess her feelings to James.

"Well I don't have a clue of how you want be to convince James when you won't let me tell him anything of what you just said", said Remus, after Grace made him promise not to tell his friends.

"You'll have to manage, because if Lily finds out I told you, she'll kill me," replied Grace. "And that won't be good for you either, because I'd tell her that you were the one I told it to and you wouldn't live for too long either."

Sirius entered the common room before Remus could answer. Remus noticed how angry he looked. So angry, he didn't even stop to explain anything. He just grunted something about bed and then ran upstairs.

"What's with him?" asked Grace, disconcerted. Seeing Sirius Black in such a state of anger was the same as seeing McGonagall laughing: almost impossible.

"If I'm not mistaken, his problem has just arrived," Remus answered, pointing at Alice with his eyes. She didn't tell them anything either, she just ran to the dormitories.

"Alice? Wasn't she supposed to be with Frank?"

Remus didn't say anything, but his face reflected perfectly what he thought about it. Grace understood and started picking up her things to go see her friend.

"The world is turning upside down..." she murmured, shaking her head.

"I'll try to convince James about the Hogsmade thing," he told her before she left. If he managed to convince James in asking Lily out once more, it would be a feat, because James was stubborn like no other.

**oOo**

It was Thursday night, and everyone was already leaving the Gryffindor common room to go to bed. Remus saw the opportunity to talk to James without interruptions coming. Sirius hadn't bothered going down to dinner. He had been pretending to be asleep all afternoon and his friends decided not to bother him. Lily, Grace and Alice had not been at dinner either, something Remus commented to James but he didn't seem to care much.

Even though the common room was empty, Remus preferred to talk to James at the bedroom, where he could be sure nobody would hear. And since it was not normal for Remus to want to go to James' room without a reason, the werewolf confessed that he had something important to talk to him about and he didn't want to wake up Sirius or Peter. James was surprised. Remus never talked to anyone about his feelings.

But Remus wasn't going to talk about _his _feelings.

"Liar", hissed James once they were at his room. Remus had started with his plan. "You have framed me so we can talk about me...again. Is it because you have some hidden love or something? Don't you like any girl at all?".

"My feelings are fine and therefore we don't need to talk about them," answered Remus, sitting at the couch and remembering what how he had planned to talk to his friend. "Now _you_, James, are not okay and we need to fix it."

"Well unless you magically make Lily fall in love with me, I don't know how you will fix it," replied James with sarcasm. "I will forget about her someday, even if it takes years. For now, just avoiding her its working out. Now I only think about her 23 hours a day."

"Don't be an idiot, you are way too in love with her to just forget about her like that..."

"Well then, thanks for your support, it's just what I need," said James.

"What you have to do is try again," advised Remus.

"So she'll reject me again. Yeah sure, that's what I was planning on doing."

"And what if she says yes?" asked the werewolf with a sparkle of certainty on his eyes.

"She hasn't done that ever, she's not going to do it now. Believe me, I know her. She'd rather go out with the giant squid, all the Slythering and maybe even Dumbledore rather than me. I'm tired of hearing the word 'no' and I don't want to hear it again."

Remus snorted. This was going to be harder than he thought.

"You should be less...arrogant with her then" he said, "All the times that you have asked her you talk as if you already know she will say yes and Lily has her pride, too."

"Yeah, I know how I've treated her before, but the last few times have been different. I'd just ask her if she wanted to go somewhere with me and she would still say no. That's not pride, she just hates me."

"She's been weird lately though" said Remus in a new attempt. "Have you noticed that she doesn't tell you off anymore and it's kinda absent?"

"Of course I've noticed! I can't help noticing everything she does all the time...but that doesn't mean anything..."

"What if its because of you?"

"It wouldn't make sense," answered James, frowning. "No, it _doesn't_ make sense."

"Well I think you should try, at least one last time" said Remus, bitting his tongue so he wouldn't tell his friend everything he knew. If James knew Lily was in love with him he would run to look for her. And Lily would kill Grace and then him. So no. "What do you have to lose? " he insisted.

James stared at his friend, raising his eyebrow.

"There's a visit to Hogsmade this Saturday, it's the perfect opportunity."

"Moony, are you mocking me?"

"Not at all," Remus replied quickly. "Think about it. You have nothing to lose by asking her and if you don't you'll never know. How would you know then if the way she is acting its because of you?"

James didn't know what to answer and started wondering why they were having that conversation.

Remus, having done all that he could, said goodbye to his friend and left to his bedroom. He'd have to hope that James' feelings were stronger than his stubbornness.

On Friday, James woke up really tired. He'd had a hard time sleeping the previous night since all he did was think about what Remus told him. It was true that Lily had been acting weird lately, but, how to believe that the change was because of him? One part of his mind told him to keep acting the same way, because he probably couldn't handle yet another rejection from the girl. But the other part, was encouraging him to try one last time, that he would regret it if he didn't. But when he woke up that morning, he still didn't know what to do.

He went down to breakfast with his friends and Remus didn't ask him anything about the chat they had. That was Remus, he would tell you what he had to, advise you, and gave you his opinion only once. Then he left you alone. He didn't insist anymore or make weird faces if you did the opposite of what he advised you to. He never influenced in the last decision.

James thought about talking about it with Sirius, so he would help him decide, but his friend was completely absent minded, as if his mind was far away from there. Remus told him that he had no idea of what had happened, even though he had his suspicions. And so the morning went on as always, first Potions, then DADA, and then lunch. They had Charms and Herbology in the afternoon. Friday was one of those days in which Lily and James shared all their classes, so the boy basically observed her all day. The phrase "_you'll regret it"_ , kept going through his mind.

At the end, while he was making his Herbology homework at the common room that afternoon, he decided he _could _take one more rejection. Just one more. That's why he would wait for Lily to come back from the library to ask her.

But James was sitting to the back of the portrait and didn't notice when Lily, Alice and Grace entered the common room and sat at other side of the room. He did, however, notice how Remus kept making hand gestures to someone who was behind him and couldn't see.

After a while, he looked at his clock and started thinking that Lily had been way too much time at the library. And being as absorbed in his own thoughts as he was, he didn't even think about looking at the girl sitting a few feet behind him. Good thing Remus knew him pretty well, and he knew James would try again, so he elbowed James when he saw Lily getting up to go to her bedroom.

"What is it?" he asked, touching his arm.

Remus didn't say anything, he just pointed at Lily with his eyes. James turned and saw her, then turned back to look at Remus, silently wondering what he should do.

"Go on," whispered Remus, giving him a push.

James stood up and quickly got to the stairway that Lily was about to climb. He took a deep breath and called her.

"Lily".

The girl stared at him, really surprised. It was the first time he had called her by her first name.

"Would you come to Hogsmade with me tomorrow?" he asked , shutting his eyes tightly as soon as he asked, scared of what might happen.

"I'd love to," she answered, a shy smile on her face.

He, who was expecting her to yell as she always did, opened his eyes and the only thing that occurred to him was to ask again, in case he had not heard right.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course," she answered, smiling wider. "I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast, James." And then started climbing the stairs, still smiling like an idiot.

The boy had the same silly smile on, and stared at her until she was upstairs. Then he turned around to go to his friends and saw Remus giving a thumbs up to Grace, who did the same thing when she saw it. When he saw them, he understood everything. The previous night Remus had insisted so much because he already knew that Lily would say yes, probably Grace told him. But he didn't care right now. James could only think about the fact that Lily was even more beautiful when she smiled at him.

Saying that James slept well that night was an understatement. He went to sleep feeling relieved, happy and excited; he even thought he would not be able to sleep due to the excitement. But he did. And even though when he woke up he remembered he had dreamed about Lily canceling their date, he didn't care. Whatever happened, he was going to save the image in his head of the red head smiling at him forever, because never in his life, he had seen something as perfect as that. And the best of all, was that that smile had been for him, just for him.

When he woke up his friends were already up, ready to go to breakfast. James didn't take long getting ready, she didn't want to make Lily wait since she normally woke up a lot earlier than him.

When they were walking down to the Great Hall, James could help but feel overflowing with joy or wipe the huge grin out of his face, that according to Sirius made him look like an idiot.

"Hey, Padfoot, what's been happening to you?" asked James before they entered the Great Hall. "You spent the whole afternoon quiet yesterday, on Thursday pretending to be asleep and today your comments are anything but funny. What's wrong?"

"Nothing too important," answered the boy. "Things just drive me crazy sometimes. But don't worry," he added, when he saw James was frowning. "It doesn't matter."

"Are you sure? You know you can tell me anything..."

"I'm sure," insisted Sirius, putting an arm over James' shoulder. "Look how smart is our little friend Monny, he has chosen some sits at the table," he said, when he noticed that Remus was sitting right in front of Lily and Grace.

"When I am back from Hogsmade we'll talk, alright?"

"Of course we'll talk," said Sirius, with craftiness. "After all this years, Evan has finally accepted and that deserves a good chat."

James frowned as a response, so Sirius would know that they were not only going to talk about the date.

When they sat at the table and James and Lily greeted each other, the other three looked them and grinned. They had stopped existing for James and Lily.

Sirius, who wasn't feeling like going to Hogsmade, said goodbye to his friends after breakfast and went back to the common room.

"Another one like Alice," commented Lily when Sirius left. "Though she didn't even come down to breakfast today, do you reckon she had a fight with Frank?" she asked Grace, who shrugged.

"Remus, you have to give me my Arithmacy book back, remember?" Grace told the boy when they were done eating.

And with the excuse of returning her the book, they both left upstairs, leaving James and Lily alone. When Lily realized she had been left alone with James she started to get nervous. She started drinking more juice to delay the situation, but James stood up before she finished drinking.

"Shall we?" he asked her, with a hint of a smile.

"Sure," she answered, getting up and feeling better due to the warmth of James' smile. How could she have taken so long in accepting that his smile was just perfect?

The walk to Hogsmade didn't feel long to them because, when they got over their nerves, they both started chatting happily and with the same confidence as if they had been friends for a really long time. And Lily found out that talking to James was much easier than talking to other boys, including Remus who was so charming.

They got to Hogsmade and started walking toward the shops. They talked for a while and then kept silent, just looking at the window shops, at that moment James ventured and took her hand. He saw how she smiled even more as she felt their hands together and thought that if his heart exploded it was from pure joy.

After looking at all the windows, James took Lily for a walk through the alleys of Hogsmade.

"Where are we going?" she asked, looking from side to side.

"To a place where you have never been to."

"Not to disappoint you, but, we've been coming to Hogsmade since third year and it is small enough for all the secret hidings to stop being so secret after a while."

"Still, you have never been there," James insisted, as they turned to walk through a street that a forest at the end. "Besides," he said, stopping for a moment and looking at Lily in the eyes, "doesn't it annoy you that everyone is staring at us?"

"My fault, I guess. If I hadn't rejected you so many times then people wouldn't be so surprised," said Lily, trying to avoid James' eyes.

"Nonsense." James took his other hand out of his pocket and touched her cheek lightly, obtaining her to look at his eyes again. "It would have happened no matter what. But whatever, I came with you and want to be alone with you. And I know the perfect spot, come on."

When ten minutes later, Lily saw the silhouette of the Shrieking Shack, she giggled. She told James she had been there plenty of times, but he just smiled. They got closer to the shack from behind, and the boy started walking more slowly, as if looking for something. Lily told him it wasn't a good idea to go in because the shack looked as if could fall any moment, but he asked her to keep quiet so the people at the front side wouldn't hear them. Not long after, James found what he was looking for, a wooden trap door on the floor, hidden under the thicket. He knelled down, and with a simple _Alohomora, _the trap door opened and behind it were some stairs.

"I bet you have never been inside?" James smiled smugly as he took Lily's hand again and started walking down the stairs. "Careful, the ceiling its a bit low until we reach the end of the stairway."

Lily followed him slowly, careful not to bump her head into the ceiling. The place didn't scare her, even though it was covered with spiderwebs and dust. What she felt was confusion. Was that the place James thought would be perfect for an ideal date? Just as that thought ran through her mind, another one got into her. What if it was a prank? After so many rejections, some of them humiliating, it wouldn't be weird. James had probably ended up hating her and wanted to make her pay in someway.

She let go of James' hand instantly, as if it had burned her.

"Who told you?" she murmured, taking a step back.

"Tell me what? Are you okay?" they had reached the end of the stairway and James had turned around when he noticed how she had let go of his hand abruptly.

"You thought it would be funny, didn't you?"

"What are you talking about, Lily?" the boy asked, very confused, not understanding why she had suddenly turned so cold.

"You thought I'd be terrified when I entered this place," Lily carried on, trying to hide the tears of disappointment she felt coming.

"Terrified? Of this? You are not afraid of this house, I know that," replied the boy, starting to understand. "I heard Alice a while ago saying you would love to enter here, but that no one wanted to come with you and that's why you hadn't done it. I thought it would be the only original thing I could do with you in Hogsmade," the last bit he said it really quietly and taking two steps back from Lily.

She fixed her eyes on his and knew he wasn't lying. Then she felt like an idiot.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, closing her eyes, to make the tears she was about to let go ,disappear.

"My prankster reputation has not left me," answered James, not making it a big deal, and took her hand again. "But not with you, Lily, I couldn't."

As an answer she smiled, relieved, and kissed him on the cheek. James stood there for a few seconds before starting to walk over to the attic, where he wanted to take Lily. His grin was so wide it almost didn't fit on his face.

"The stories about this shack being haunted are lies, don't you think?" said Lily as they climbed the last bit of stairs. "It's just an old abandoned house, full of bugs and dust. Though I have to admit it has its charm."

"One of this days we'll talk about the stories of this house," James promised, as he opened the door to the attic. "Now you have to see this."

The room in front of them was rectangular, and even though the roof's inclination and the lack of light made it look small, Lily calculated that it was about the same size as her bedroom. The only window it had and through where the only light was coming from was at the center of the room, where James told Lily to follow him so she could see the beautiful landscape you could see from there: at first they could see the forest they had just gone through to get there, and behind it was a magnificent view of Hogwarts.

"The view its beautiful," said Lily, leaning against the windowsill.

James did the same thing beside her and looked through the window too.

"You are far more beautiful," he whispered in her ear.

Lily walked away from the window so James couldn't see she was blushing. She walked through the room, trying to look interested in the small amount of furniture in there, but James' eyes following her made her even more nervous than she already was.

"Judging by the amount of dust, I'd say this house has been abandoned for almost a century," she commented, trying to make the nervousness go away.

"Lily." The boy had walked to her and whispered to her ear again.

"Yes?" She had turned around and was now facing him, her nose almost brushing against his chin, since he was taller than her.

"Don't walk away," he whispered, cocking his face to the side so he could meet her eyes. He raised his right hand and caressed her red hair.

"Why?" she whispered back. She closed her eyes as she felt his hand move from her hair to her cheek, were it stayed.

"Because...because.." James got even closer, and when a sigh from her brushed against his lips, he forgot what he was about to say.

Lily closed her eyes and placed her hand on top of the one James' had on her cheek as he closed his eyes too and finished shortening the space between their lips. Around them, time seemed to fade away.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

More than half of the Hogwarts' students were at Hogsmade enjoying the day. Strolling around, buying sweets at Honeydukes, drinking a butter beer at The Three Broomsticks...things Alice didn't feel like doing that day. That's why she told Grace she would have to go alone. Now, laying on her bed, Alice was regretting it. First, because Grace would be annoyed at her for making her go alone, and second because she wouldn't be able to buy those cherry caramels she loved so much.

She stood up from her bed and got dressed. She would go down to the common and room and see if someone else had stayed at Hogwarts too.

"With this weather, someone else probably wanted to stay inside," she murmured to herself as she peeked through the window and saw all the rain and clouds outside.

As she began walking down the stairs she began hearing some conversations down at the common room. But once she got there, she realized it was only the first and second years, who weren't allowed to go to Hogsmade. It seemed like everyone from third year and up had decided to spend the day at town. She sighed. It would be a boring Saturday.

She turned back to her bedroom to get a book, she'd rather read next to the fireplace than at her bed. As she was going back to the common room, she bumped into Peter Pettigrew who was heading to the Fat Lady's portrait. He didn't greet Alice, and he normally did, something she felt okay with because the boy kinda creped her out. She walked over to her favorite couch, an old soft one right next to the fireplace, but it was already taken.

"It just _had _to be his favorite couch too..." she murmured, annoyed, as she realized that it was taken by none other than Sirius Black.

She was happy he was asleep though, then she could avoid ignoring him or telling him he was a moron again. She still couldn't decide how she would treat him from now on.

Alice went to sit real far away from him, even though that meant to be away from the fireplace too. She ended up sitting on a couch next to the window, at least from there she would be able to see her friends arriving. Lily would probably be back until dusk, but Grace had just gone shopping, would hopefully be back before lunch time. Oh, Grace! She smiled when she realized that Grace probably hadn't gone alone. Peter and Sirius had stayed at the castle and James was with Lily, so Remus didn't have anyone to go with either, and since he and Grace got along pretty well they would probably join each other....

"_At the end the only one who has to stay alone is me.._" she thought sadly, before opening her book.

**oOo**

The Three Broomsticks was extremely crowded, good thing Grace and Remus had already been there for a while or they wouldn't have been able to eat lunch in there. Neither of them had planned to stay at Hogsmade for so long, but they got talking and forgot about the time.

"I'm just saying, if Alice broke up with Frank it has to be because of something, right?" Remus was talking about his friends feelings again and discussing with Grace about the possibilities that Sirius had with Alice.

"Seriously, Remus. Don't start playing Cupid with all of your friends. Who are you going to pair up with Pettigrew?" mocked Grace.

"I'm not playing Cupid, I'm just telling you what I see," replied Remus, calmly. " And I am assuring you that Sirius has feelings for Alice, even a blind person would know!"

"The only feeling he has for her is hatred. But it's alright because the feeling is mutual."

"Then why did she brake up with Frank?" insisted Remus.

"Oh, come on, leave them alone and start eating, it's going to get cold" she answered, pointing at the plate of food in front of him. "And I don't know why they broke up, she didn't tell me. But if it makes you feel better I think our plan has worked with Lily and James," she said as she saw them enter The Three Broomsticks.

She made signs to her friend so they would sit with her and Remus since there was no other table left. Grace couldn't help but notice that they were holding hands and felt really happy about her friend.

"Hey, guys," greeted James happily when they reached the table.

"Hey," answered both Grace and Remus at the same time.

"Lucky you are here or we wouldn't have a place to eat," said James, filling the silence.

"Eh...yeah, sure, lucky," answered Remus, not daring to ask how everything was going.

James looked at Lily because he didn't know why she was so quiet, and even less in front of Grace and Remus. The red head didn't look at him back but she squeezed his hand. And James understood that she didn't know how to act, in that new situation. She was going to open her mouth to say something but Grace talked first.

"Oh, come on! We are not strangers, are we? Lily, you and James are officially going out for what we can see, so stop being shy, we all know each other."

"Grace is right," said Remus with a small grin. "It's not as if we didn't already know you were going to end up like this sooner or later. It's not surprising."

James and Lily smiled, she without being able to hide her blush.

"It's just weird," said the red head, looking at her friends, "A few months ago I would have rather starve myself too death before eating with James, but now..."

"Now you'll die if you don't eat with me," finished James in a dramatic way.

"Hey!" Lily protested, hitting her now boyfriend softly on the arm. Now the four of them were laughing.

"I'm going to get something to eat before one of us really dies of starvation," said James, standing up.

"We are really happy for you two," said Remus, making Lily look at him and Grace instead of following James with her eyes.

"Your plan worked out pretty good." Lily was still smiling, though now she was raising an eyebrow. Grace opened her mouth but the red head carried on, "James told me about the sudden chat he had with you on Thursday night, Remus, and the thumbs up you both made when you saw how I said yes, yesterday."

Remus and Grace's grins wiped off from their faces. They were caught. Lily giggled when she saw their faces.

"Grace probably scared you telling you I would kill you if you said anything to James, right Remus?"

The boy gave a hint of a nervous smile to let her know that's what had happened indeed.

"I would have probably ignored you for a few days if this hadn't gone well. Not because of Grace's big mouth, but because I would had been sad if I went through one more day without James."

"I wouldn't have done anything if you would've just told James or something", said Grace.

"I know," replied Lily, standing up. "And thanks, to both of you, you are great" She gave them each a kiss on the cheek and sat down again.

"Yeah, they are great friends," intervened James, who had just got back. He too kissed Grace on the cheek, something that surprised her, and squeezed Remus' shoulder. Then he went back to sitting next to Lily at the time they brought their plates.

"Now let's eat."

**oOo**

The sudden change in weather made a lot of students go back to the castle sooner than they had planned. At that moment a lot of Gryffindors were heading back, right after lunch. Alice was still seating at the same place. She had been reading all morning, cuddled on the couch and not feeling hungry in the least. That's why she hadn't gone to lunch. The only thing she had eaten that day were three chocolate frogs she had in her bedroom before; and the weird feeling of the frogs jumping in her stomach had taken her appetite away. Half an hour after she sat down she had forgotten all about Sirius being asleep on her favorite couch and focused on her book.

She was so absorbed in her reading, she didn't even notice what had been happening in the common room. Sirius had been awake for a while now and was peeking at her through one of the sides of the couch.

Sirius had fallen asleep before because he was so bored. He hadn't joined Remus because that weird feeling in his stomach was still there, it had been there for two days now. He was trying not to make a big deal out of it but it was the first time he hadn't been to a Hogsmade visit.

When he woke up he started looking around for a familiar face, maybe Remus was back already. He didn't see anyone until he searched behind him and saw Alice cuddled up on a couch next to the window reading a book.

She had her brown hair in a braid, some locks out of it and falling unto her face, which looked really calm, it made her look as a peaceful girl, who wouldn't hurt a fly. Sirius thought she was exactly the opposite to that, and no matter how peaceful she looked, she was really wild, and she also thought she was superior to him for being capable of ignoring him and make him feel as an invisible bug when they were together. It made him really angry to remember all the times she had talked to her and she just stared as if there was a wall there, or just insult him instead. Remus and James had told him that she was only doing it because of all the years _he_ spent ignoring _her_. Nevertheless, Sirius thought Alice was being extremely childish with this. After all, he didn't do it anymore and he had matured. And lately, every time she ignored him, he got in a really bad mood, and he still didn't know why.

The limit of his annoyance had been reached that Thursday were he had found her with Longbottom and Alice had talked to him again, (only insults, but it was an advance), but still, Sirius couldn't remember another time in which he had been so angry.

"_Why are you so infuriating, Alice_?" he thought to himself as he stared at her.

The girl looked up from her book, as if she had heard the question Sirius thought. Maybe if he had just turned back around nothing would have happened, but Sirius didn't move. He kept looking at her, wishing on the inside that she would talk to him again, even if it was to insult him.

"You should do something more useful with your time than just stare at me," she said, fixing her eyes on his.

"No, I shouldn't," he answered calmly, even though she sounded really irritated. He wanted to find out if it was possible for them to have a civilized conversation.

"Stop looking at me, you idiot." It was even more annoying for Alice if he tried to behave as if they got along fine.

"I'm not insulting you, so I don't think you should insult me either."

She shut the book and placed it beside her. Her anger level was raising and the fact that Sirius was acting so normally wasn't helping. And that he, looking at the way she narrowed her eyes and frowned, couldn't help but grin. He thought Alice made a really funny face when she got mad.

"I can ignore you, insult you, or even curse you if I think it's alright." Alice had gotten up from the couch. Why did _he_ had to mock her right at that moment?

"You wouldn't dare," answered the boy, smugly.

"No?" she replied, quickly getting her wand out of her robes.

The common room was pretty big, but not big enough for people not to hear their voices. The smaller kids ran away when they saw Alice pointing her wand at Sirius; the rest of them just stared at him, to see what he would do. He had less than five seconds for Alice's answer to make him duck, avoiding a curse she had just shot at him. This was the sign for everyone else on the common room to leave.

"Are you insane!?" exclaimed Sirius as he stood up again and got his own wand out. The civil talk idea had clearly not worked out.

"I'm not insane, I'm just answering your dare," answered the girl, her wand ready to throw another curse. "Scared, Black?"

"I'm not scared of you, bitch," Sirius pointed his wand at her too. "Don't make me laugh..."

"Stop pestering me once and for all! I'm sick of your stupid arrogance, Black!"

They were both pointing their wands at each other, their eyes fixed on each other and yelling with the same intensity as the last time.

"You are the one who always screws it all up!"

"Oh yeah? I don't think any of _your_ girlfriends has dumped you because of _my_ fault!" blurted Alice, remembering her last conversation with Frank. "So stop talking nonsense!!"

Sirius understood that she had broken up with Frank because of him, because of him? Something was missing, something he didn't know, because what would he have to do with the girls' boyfriend?

"IMPEDIMENTA!"

Sirius felt backwards as a beam of light crashed into him. He had been caught off guard because he was thinking about the Longbottom thing.

She raised her eyebrow as she saw him stand up again.

Alice dodged the curse Sirius shot her in response.

When half an hour later, Remus, Grace, Lily and James entered the common room, they found it in an extremely disastrous way.

"Expeliarmus!" yelled Grace and James at the same time.

Sirius and Alice's wands flew away from their hands. Lily picked them up with a quick '_Accio', _before their owners could pick them up first.

"What the hell are you doing!?" asked Remus, approaching Sirius.

"Have you both lost your minds or what??" reprimanded Grace, as she took Alice by the arm.

"_She _started it!"

"_You_ started, moron!" replied Alice, setting herself free from Grace's grip. She shot Sirius a death glare and went to her bedroom, kicking everything on the way.

The four stared at Sirius, waiting for an explanation. But the boy just went to sit at the nearest sofa that wasn't destroyed, crossed his arms over his chest and groaned.

"We should fix this place before someone else sees it," said Lily, pointing her wand to the chairs.

"You girls should go upstairs and talk to Alice, we'll fix it," said James, taking Sirius' wand from Lily's hand.

Grace picked up the shopping bags she had left next to the portrait and ran upstairs. Remus was next to the window and was fixing the glass and the nearby couches.

"Will you wait for me here?" asked Lily, she didn't want her date with James to be over so soon.

"Of course," answered James, smiling.

She kissed him on the corner of his lips and ran upstairs too. James' stare followed her until she disappeared.

"Don't kill Padfoot unless he doesn't have a reasonable explanation," said Remus, who had approached James.

James sighed, shaking his head and got to work. They'd have to fix the mess before talking to Sirius, who was still sitting at the couch, staring at nothing in particular.

Upstairs, at the girls' bedroom, Lily and Grace observed Alice, who was laying down on her bed, without saying a word.

"Lily, I don't know what you are staring at, I'm not really that interesting," said Alice, without moving. "You should be downstairs, with James, because then you'll shove it in my face that it's my fault your date was so short."

"We'll have other dates," said the red head, climbing to the bed. She pushed Alice's legs away and sat there with Grace.

"So you admit that what happened downstairs was your fault, huh?" Grace looked at her friend, raising an eyebrow.

"It doesn't make me proud to admit that half of the couches are destroyed because of me," groaned the girl, sitting up. "But that bastard of Black is too fast!"

"And why were you trying to curse him?" asked Lily.

"He started!" exclaimed Alice. "He was there, looking at me and talking to me as if we got along just fine. It's all his fault."

"His fault for what?"

"For Frank dumping me yesterday," she answered quickly and annoyed, "and then he says..."

"Frank dumped you because of Black!?" yelled Grace and Lily at the same time, very shocked. They both knew that he and Alice were not together anymore but they didn't know why.

"Yeah, after he saw me fighting with Black on Thursday," answered Alice, vaguely.

"You fought with Black on Thursday!?"

"When were you planning on telling us this!?"

The girls were staring at Alice with a mixture of indignation and disappointment.

"I told you yesterday before we.." she started, but was interrupted by her friends again.

"You didn't tell us anything!"

"No?" Alice had completely forgotten she hadn't told anyone.

"No!" Lily assured her. "So you can start now."

Alice repeated several times while she was telling everything, that Frank was kinda blind and that he wasn't worth it after all.

When she told them the reasons that Frank had when he dumped her, Grace and Lily thought he wasn't blind at all.

According to Alice, she went to look for him and apologize on Friday morning. With a resignation tone, Frank told her he couldn't carry on with her if she liked someone else. Alice rushed to tell him it wasn't true but he didn't believe her, in fact, he said that the way she was acting convinced him even more.

"_It doesn't surprise me, after all, half of Hogwarts its after Sirius Black..."_

"_I'm not after Sirius Black!" yelled the girl, offended by the comment._

"_Why do you act that with him, then?"_

"_Because I can't stand him!"_

"_You can't stand McBraiser either and you don't go around ignoring him or making nasty comments about him," said Frank calmly._

"_It's different!" She couldn't lower her tone, the indignation she felt was too strong. "I HATE Black!"_

"_Are you sure about that?"_

"_Of course I am!"_

"_And the fact that you liked Black back in fifth year doesn't have anything to do with it?"_

_Alice got even angrier as she remembered that year, glaring at Frank._

"_You are wrong about me, Frank" she said finally. "One day you'll see." And she turned around to go to her next class._

"_And one day you'll see I am right!" yelled the boy before she disappeared._

"Don't say a word," said Alice , when she saw Grace open her mouth to comment about it. "The thing in fifth grade was stupid, just a crush. And if you are going to say that you think I have feelings for Black then shut up. Because if you do I'll stop talking."

Grace and Lily looked at each other, their mouth shut, none of them thought Sirius was worth ruining their friendship, and Alice's tone was very menacing.

"Good, I see you understood," said the girl as she saw her friends were still silent. "Seriously, Black repulses me."

"Whatever you say," replied Grace.

"I'm going to the kitchens, I suddenly got hungry," said Alice, standing up. "Ill see you guys later."

"Are we doing what we should?" asked Lily when the door closed.

"I'm just seeing it clearer and clearer the fact that she fancies Black," was Grace's only answer.

"And we are not going to do anything about it?"

"Now that you are going out with James she's going to have to spend a lot of time with Sirius whether she likes it or not, we'll see what happens then," Grace looked at her friend and let out a sigh. "Damn Remus, he's always right."

**oOo**

While the girls were up talking at the dormitories, Remus and James were trying to get Sirius to speak. They sat at the sofa with him and spent a few minutes in silence, waiting for Sirius to talk. But he didn't even look at them, he just kept staring at his knees.

"Sirius," called James quietly, "what happened?"

He didn't answer. James looked at Remus and they both shrugged.

"Padfoot, why were you fighting with Alice?"

As soon as he heard the girl's name, he looked up and frowned.

"Alice? She's insufferable," he said finally. "I was trying to have a civilized conversation with her and what does she do? Curse me!"

"You must have done something to get her on the defensive..." said Remus.

"On attack, not defensive, Moony!" corrected Sirius, getting up from the sofa. "I was trying to be her friend and she almost kills me!"

"Her friend? Since when are you interested in being friends with Alice?" asked James.

"Err—well.." Sirius opened his eyes widely and looked at his friends without knowing what to answer.

Remus gave a smug grin and James lifted an eyebrow, incredulous.

"It's not what you are thinking," rushed Sirius when he saw his friends' faces. "I just want to get along with her now that you and Lily are together!'

"And how did you know that things between Lily and I had worked out before we came back from Hogsmade?" asked James, with a fake curiosity.

Sirius went silent again. He didn't know what to do in order for Remus and James to believe him that he didn't like Alice. That was just stupid...

"I didn't have a doubt about it and that's why I talked to Alice, but she attacked me," replied Sirius, getting nervous. "Now leave me alone! Don't you have anything better to do?"

He didn't wait for Remus or James to answer, he just ran out of the common room. He was going to the kitchen to get a bite since he skipped lunch and was now really hungry.

"He likes her!" exclaimed James, after a few moments.

"I knew something was up," said Remus.

"Then, you already knew?"

"I suspected it," admitted the werewolf. "Anyway, I don't he even knows it himself."

"Yeah, when he does he'll tell us." James reclined against the sofa and sighed. "We are finally growing up, now we only need to know who _you _fancy," he said, winking at Remus.

"If you are starting again with that, I'll go to the library, then at least I'll do something productive," said Remus as he got up, getting annoyed. He went upstairs to get his books.

James stayed by himself, thinking about his friends and hoping the girls' chat wouldn't go for long.

Twenty minutes later, Alice came down the stairs, and out of the portrait. A few minutes later, Grace and Lily got to the common room too.

The first one was carrying her books and was heading to the library and Lily went to sit beside James, silently. She saw the boy had his eyes closed and thought he was asleep. She started to get up so he could sleep, but his voice didn't let her.

"I'm glad the chat didn't last until dinner time, " he told her as he opened his eyes and smiled. "Now it's weird to be without you."

"I know, same here," murmured the girl, sitting closer to James. She rested her head on his shoulder and he placed an arm around her, cuddling her.

They spent a while sitting there at the sofa, just enjoying each other's company. There was nothing else to be said. Not after they confessed everything and talked at The Shrieking Shack.

**oOo**

Some floors down, Alice was walking toward the kitchen. She reached the fruit portrait and before raising her arm to tickle the pear, the portrait was opening to let someone out.

"You just won't disappear, will you?" said the girl. Sirius Black was the last person she wanted to run into at the time.

"I'm not thrilled to see you either," he replied curtly and avoiding her eyes.

He stepped aside so she could go through, but said one last thing before. "There's nothing we can do about it now that Lily and James are together, though," he looked up and fixed his eyes on Alice's. "We'd have to pretend we don't hate each other, don't you think?"

Alice hesitated before replying.

"It's for the best," she said finally. "But that won't change the fact that--"

"You hate me," ended Sirius. "I know, I'm not going to change either," he concluded, turning around and walking away.

Alice stared at him as he left. Then she snorted, and entered the kitchen.

**oOo**

The people entering the common room didn't seem to care about the couple at the end of the room, cuddled on a sofa.

Nevertheless, nor Lily or James noticed anyone. They only had room in their mind for each other, about the things they were whispering, about James' hands caressing Lily's hair, and their hands being together. The would could collapse because they didn't seem to belong in there anymore.

"James," said the red head, softly.

"Yes?"

Lily sat up a bit without letting go of his hand and looked at him in the eyes, then they both smiled again.

"Thanks for waiting for me," she murmured before they locked their lips in a sweet kiss, filled with emotions.

**THE END**

* * *

_A/N: Did you like it? Are you curious about what's going to happen next with Alice and Sirius, maybe Remus and Grace,what will happen once they leave Hogwarts?_

_What will they have to face? Who will they meet? What's life going to be like?_

_If you want to know all of this and more, read the sequel! _

_**It's called After A Start **_

_**Here's part of the link, just add the rest that you probably already know, the (w w w. f a n f i c t i o n . net) but without the spaces, for some weird reason FF won't let me put it.  
**_

_**/s/4791219/1/After_A_Start  
**_

_It's still in progress but I like to think it's better than this story. Thanks for reading! :)  
_


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